YMMV / Barbie (2023)

• Abandon Shipping: Before the movie came out, much of the fanart, memes, and speculation paired Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken, due to them being the One True Pairing for the dolls, and playing love interests in the CGI movies. However, in the movie proper, while Beach Ken does have feelings for Stereotypical Barbie, the latter very clearly does not feel the same way, and their relationship is revealed to be bad for them both, with their separation at the end being a good thing, which caused many fans to jump the ship. That said, there are still a lot of people who ship them due to their complicated relationship and the actors' chemistry (the fanarts pairing them are hardly reduced).
• Accidental Innuendo: The tagline "She's everything... he's just Ken" became this when translated into French, where "ken" is slang for sex. "Elle peut tout faire. Lui, c’est juste Ken" can be interpreted as "She knows how to do anything. He just knows how to fuck." (Because it sounds the same as "Lui sait juste ken.")
• Alternate Aesop Interpretation:
  • While the Kendom is an obvious parody of the patriarchy, you could also make the case that it's a warning about a Full-Circle Revolution in general: an oppressed people take power from the people who once oppressed them, but their leader finds himself completely unprepared to deal with the nitty gritty of actually running a society and government. This leads to them becoming just as bad as the people who they overthrew, even accusing members of the originally oppressed people (such as Allan, Earring Magic Ken and Sugar Daddy Ken) of being "traitors to their kind" simply for not being being sufficiently "committed to the cause" as the Revolution devours her children yet again.
  • The Barbies believe that their very invention ended patriarchy and sexism in the real world, and Stereotypical Barbie is horrified once she discovers that not only is it not true, standards of representation had shifted so much in the half-century plus since she first appeared on toy store shelves that many women consider Barbie to be an agent of the patriarchy. The film ends with Stereotypical Barbie leaving Barbieland behind to go to the real world, where she truly can make a difference as a real adult rather than live in a utopian fantasy. You can read this as a unique form of Anti-Escapism Aesop, this time targeted at media discourse surrounding children's media: media representation is important, and it's perfectly fine to feel empowered or represented by a child's toy. But media representation can only go so far: a plastic doll can't change the world, only real people can.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Is Ken Entitled to Have You to Barbie or is he simply following his "programming"? It seems that Kens solely exist in Barbieland to be Barbies' boyfriends. Ken has no friends (besides the other Kens), and was made to love someone who doesn't need him and has no real interest in a relationship with him. Being who he was made to be doesn't make him happy, being toxically masculine to feel any power didn't make him happy, so what can? The movie doesn't offer a simple answer to Ken's happiness, but it doesn't do that for Barbie either; she's explicitly told that becoming human is going to make her life more complicated and challenging, along with its benefits.
  • Are Ken's feelings for Barbie real even though All Love Is Unrequited? He seems genuinely to want to help her in her quest in the real world and also tells her after his overthrow that he only wanted to be in the Barbie Dream House with her. However, it's possible his devotion to her was purely the result of being made to love her and no other purpose existing in his life. But does that make his feelings for Barbie any less real?
  • Many have interpreted Barbie's total disinterest in a romantic relationship with Ken (or anyone else) as her being aromantic and asexual. (Margot Robbie has said she doesn't think Barbie even could feel sexual desire for someone^note especially likely since she literally doesn't have genitals, but whether that changes upon Barbie becoming a human woman is never explored.)
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: In one scene where Barbie has a break down, she claims she is not stereotypically pretty anymore, after which the narrator breaks the fourth wall and says that Margot Robbie was the wrong the person to comment that line. While some people take the joke at face value being that Hollywood will inevitably cast only pretty women for big leading roles, other think the joke was also meant to highlight how every woman feels ugly sometimes regardless of how they look.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Some viewers were surprised to discover that all the dolls shown in Weird Barbie's house were real Mattel products, including Growing Up Skipper and Sugar Daddy Ken.
• Americans Hate Tingle: For some reason, journalists in Germany appear to have been lukewarm, if not dismissive, towards the movie and the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon it had with Oppenheimer, with one journalist crediting its success due to a carefully planned "breadcrumbing" marketing campaign by Mattel, while another one outright accused Barbie of AstroTurfing.
• Anvilicious: While the movie ultimately promotes the idea that all supremacist ideologies are bad (both the matriarchy of Barbieland and the patriarchy of the Real World suck in their own ways), the anti-patriarchy message is hammered in much harder. Barbie's expectations that the Barbie line single-handedly solved all matters of sexism and equal rights are time and again destroyed when she goes to the real world, constantly catcalled, and baffled when she sees no women in a leadership role at Mattel. At Barbie's lowest point, Gloria goes on a heated rant about how the patriarchy forces women into countless no-win scenarios a la "can't be this, but also can't be that." The rant turns out to be the key to snapping the other Barbies out of the brainwashing that the Kens' new patriarchy has put them under. Even men don't really benefit from patriarchy except by dint of not suffering the sorts of things women do; when it's all over, Ken admits that trying to live up to a hyper-masculine ideal didn't really make him happy, and it's suggested he'd be better off just being himself instead. It's also made clear that only specific men are allowed to enjoy the benefits of the patriarchy as Alan–who either can't or doesn't want to live up to their standards–immediately attempts to jump ship and head to Real World.
• Award Snub:
  • While it received Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling) and Supporting Actress (America Ferrera), Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were left out of the nominees for Director and Actress, respectively, even though most Oscar commentators considered them locks. Gosling himself immediately called out the snub, as did many others. They still both got nominations for different categories: Robbie for Best Picture (as one of the film's producers) and Gerwig for Adapted Screenplay (along with Noah Baumbach).
  • Even before the nominations were announced, many voiced their immediate discourse at moving the Screenplay out of eligibility in the Original category and into the Adapted one instead just based only on the mere association with the toy-line alone.
  • Fans of Dua Lipa also make note of "Dance the Night" being left out of the Song category too, even with how praised the other two songs that did make it—"I'm Just Ken" and "What Was I Made For?"—are. While some noted that Academy rules say that no more than two songs from one film can be nominated, the fact that "I'm Just Ken" was a song performed by Ken's actor Ryan Gosling (not a singer by trade) still raised some eyebrows—and on top of that, both of the song's writers were also among the four writers for "Dance the Night" along with Dua herself. It still getting a lot of air time during the ceremony itself seemed to be an indication that the song was still represented nonetheless though—and that it stood in for the movie itself too.
  • Come Oscar night itself, the movie was left out in the cold, taking home a trophy for just one of its eight nominations (Best Original Song for "What Was I Made For?", and even then many would have preferred "I'm Just Ken" to win that one) while every other major award it was up for was split between Poor Things and Oppenheimer for the most part.
• Awesome Art: Barbie is a gorgeous movie, and the visuals of the film are widely praised as one of its strongest aspects. The sets and costume designs are all gloriously plastic-y, over-the-top, and vibrantly colorful with lots and lots of pink, yet manage to never come off as distracting, being a pitch-perfect live-action translation of the colorful, toy-like aesthetic one should expect of the doll line.
• Awesome Music:
  • Dua Lipa's song "Dance the Night", a funky disco-tinged number that is sure to get you moving.
  • Ken gets a Power Ballad solo with his fellow Kens singing backup simply called "I'm Just Ken" and it's GLORIOUS. Includes guitar work by Slash for added awesomeness.
  • Any use of Indigo Girls' "Closer to Fine" should count.
  • "Angel" by PinkPantheress, which despite its short runtime comes with some cutesy elements, including a fiddle in the post-chorus bits to add to the liveliness.
  • Charli XCX adds to her catalogue of pop bangers about cars with her heart pounding new track "Speed Drive."
  • "Barbie World", a short high energy drill track that samples THE defining and eternal smash hit "Barbie Girl" by Aqua with spotless and chemistry-ladened verses by THE Barbie girl herself Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice.
  • Sam Smith totally breaks character with the thumping, testosterone-drenched celebration of toxic masculinity "Man I Am." Smith sing-speaking the verses in their gravelly lower range is the cherry on top.
  • Billie Eilish contributes the stunning "What Was I Made For?", a deeply somber and haunting piano ballad about her struggles to find purpose in life, paralleling Barbie's own spiritual journey throughout the film. It is used in the film as Barbie makes her decision to become human despite the difficulties it comes with.
• Broken Base:
  • The ending of the Barbieland conflict where after the Barbies regain their power, Barbieland "advances" to a "reformed matriarchy" where the Kens are no longer fully excluded from politics, but are only given smaller positions with the possibility of advancing to the point where they have it about as good as women do in the real world do has proven to be highly divisive. Many feel that the ending works as effective social commentary by being an intentional Broken Aesop that highlights how unfair the same situation is for women in the real world. Other feel that the ending just results in the Barbies becoming Unintentionally Unsympathetic to the audience, as it comes across as them only caring about gender inequality when they're the ones getting the short end of the stick.
  • Ken not apologising to Barbie at the end is a big point of contention, especially since Barbie was shown to be horribly affected by the Barbie Land takeover far more than anyone else, with even the things she apologises for being more of a case of Innocently Insensitive rather than maliciousness, when Ken's actions were motivated by revenge, and feeling he was overly Entitled to Have You at the beginning. Others however point out that in the context of the story, Ken was basically an oppressed minority whose actions were a direct result of Barbie's and the Barbie Land system as a whole, as well as Ken not having gone through the Character Development that Barbie had, so it makes sense for him to not be mature enough to apologise.
  • Gloria's infamous speech about how it's impossible to be a woman. The speech struck a big chord both for America Ferrara's passionate delivery and how it resonated with a lot of viewers, male and female, and many point to it as the heart of the movie. It is equally polarizing however for seeming far too on-the-nose, coming out of nowhere and being far too simplistic. There likely will never be any middle ground on it.
  • The very last joke of the movie, where newly-human Barbie schedules her first visit with a gynecologist. Some viewers found it cringey, low-brow, and cisnormative, implying that "real" womanhood is characterized by having a vagina. Others found it funny and representative of truly awkward human experiences in general. It comes up a lot in discussions on whether the movie's feminism and views on womanhood are shallow or not.
• Common Knowledge: A long-running joke in the Barbie fandom, supported by the film's portrayal of Ken and reinforced in interviews by the film's director Greta Gerwig, is that Ken is just a trophy boyfriend to Barbie, to the point where fans of Barbie will adamantly declare that Ken has always just been Barbie's boyfriend and hasn't had any occupations beyond that. While Ken was initially created in response to fan demand for Barbie to have a boyfriend and has held significantly fewer occupations than her, the character has still held over 40 occupations since his creation, the most recent being a marine biologist. In the film, Beach Ken not only does not have a proper job because his role is to be a beach bum, but also, a major plot line in the film ends up being that Beach Ken is not acknowledged by Stereotypical Barbie despite being created to be her love interest, which leads to him taking over Barbieland after discovering the patriarchy in order to find his purpose and have him and the other Kens be respected. When the Barbies take over again, the Kens still do not have full equality with the Barbies, though the narrator implies that they will be able to do so someday.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Barbie interrupting her own dance party by casually asking the incredibly morbid question "Do you guys ever think about dying?" It's followed by a Record Scratch and Stunned Silence from everyone at the party, and when Barbie backtracks, the party continues on as if it didn't happen. The kicker is how out of nowhere it comes.
  • When Ken gets turned down for a corporate job and accuses an executive of doing patriarchy wrong, the executive retorts that they're doing it fine, they just hide it better.
  • When Barbie finally meets Sasha, the latter immediately launches into a rant about how despite Barbie's good intentions, her portrayal of womanhood has caused severe issues to young girls, mirroring the feminist movement critiques of the doll line. Barbie is so overwhelmed by Sasha's rant that she bursts into tears... And then Sasha ends her rant with accusing Barbie of being fascist out of nowhere. Barbie herself questions why Sasha would call her that, because she doesn't control the railways or the flow of commerce.
  • Barbie having a Heroic BSoD over not being able to save her fellow Barbies from the Ken takeover is genuinely sad... And is abruptly followed up by a commercial for "Depression Barbie" in the style of Mattel's modern commercials, who does things like "eat an entire family sized bag of Starbursts" and "watch the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries for the seventh time this week".
• Crossover Ship: Due to the "Barbenheimer" meme, many people have legitimately started shipping Barbie and J. Robert Oppenheimer (Oppenheimer) together, including writing fanfics and drawing fan art of the characters in a romantic relationship. See also: Crack Pairing.
• Do Not Do This Cool Thing: The film condemns patriarchial values, but the hyper-masculine attitudes Beach Ken embraces in the real world are what finally give him and the other Kens the confidence to stand up for equal rights. Not to mention, the Kendom the Kens set up has a legitimately fun aesthetic with its horse Mount Rushmore, frat-bro parties, and Beach Ken's very fun to say "Mojo Dojo Casa House". The only thing the Kendom doesn't do is completely get rid of Beach Ken's insecurities about his self-worth.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Ken is heavily subject to this by the fanbase (being portrayed by Ryan Gosling certainly helps), and there's no shortage of comments along the lines of "Ken did nothing wrong". Granted, Ken is not without sympathetic qualities and the society of Barbieland is partly to blame for his insecurity and loneliness. But Ken's journey throughout the movie is exactly about realizing that turning Barbieland's matriarchy into a patriarchy did nothing to actually make him feel better, and that he should find his own purpose in life rather than basing his personality all around his love for Barbie.
  • Some fans seem to view Barbieland as an actual Utopia, and assert that the Kens are solely responsible for failing to achieve positions of power within this society. The narrator makes it pretty clear this is also not the intent of the movie.
• Everyone Is Satan in Hell: Surprisingly (or perhaps not), the movie has been accused of being Satanic and of drawing children into homosexuality.
• Evil Is Cool: For a given measure of "evil," the rebellious Kens have gotten a lot of love due to being hilariously manly men who are simultaneously ridiculous caricatures of masculinity and sympathetic characters. The scene where two factions of Kens have a comically over-the-top battle on the beach, accompanied by Beach Ken singing "I'm Just Ken," has become one of the most beloved parts of the film.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Along with Oppenheimer, the two films have started to grow one with fans of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which was released just over a week before and came to suffer from the worst domestic box office drop in the entire Mission: Impossible movie franchise, which is in no small part thanks to going up against the "Barbenheimer" hype of its two biggest competitors.
  • A Friendly Rivalry has developed between this film and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, specifically which of their Signature Songs should win Best Original Song at the Oscars. Fans of both sides have been anticipating a duet between Ryan Gosling and Jack Black singing their respective songs "I'm Just Ken" and "Peaches".
  • After the announcement of Oscar nominees, Anatomy of a Fall became one for this film due to the former's director Justine Triet and leading actress Sandra Hüller taking Best Director and Best Leading Actress over Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie. People point out that a woman director who has made a feminist-themed work still got their nominations yet fans of Barbie complained about the snub. From there on, they debate over which one is more feminist than not, with fans of Anatomy of a Fall criticize Barbie for its over-simplistic presentation of feminism and being a "feature-length commercial for Mattel."
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Many fanfics for this film have the following plots:
  • Beach Ken finds love with another Barbie, Ken or Allan.
  • Gloria divorces her husband so that she can be with Barbie instead.
  • For "Barbenheimer" fics, a common plot is to have Barbie be hired to work as a secretary for one of the scientists at the Manhattan Project, and for Oppenheimer to notice her potential and promote her to work directly on the bomb (since she's worked as a scientist before). If Ken does appear, he usually bonds with Oppenheimer over their shared love of horses.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "Barbenheimer" is used when speaking about both this movie and Oppenheimer together. While it can be used for fanfic purposes, it's also used to discuss their box office receipts, as both movies performed well at the box office and is seen as evidence that even in an age of streaming, people will go to the theater.
  • Rugrats fans tend to call Weird Barbie "Cynthia" due to her resemblance to the bedraggled-looking Barbie knock-off owned by the character, Angelica.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Despite the fact that Gloria is married, some fans ship her with Barbie instead, due to the chemistry between their actresses, Barbie being Gloria's doll, and the fact that Gloria's husband is only in two scenes and doesn't even get a name. It also doesn't hurt that both Margot Robbie and America Ferrera have called Barbie and Gloria a love story.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: Ken's Evil Makeover once he takes over Barbieland involves a bandana, Cool Shades and a long fur coat without a shirt underneath. Unsurprisingly, it's one of his most popular looks from the movie.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • The movie quickly developed one with people who were looking forward to Oppenheimer after it was discovered they were due to release on the same day. Despite the wildly different tones and subject matter, people expressed a desire to see both on the same day, sometimes because of that very contrast. It also helps that both movies are helmed by famous auteurs and have an All-Star Cast. The mutual love has been cited as the reason both movies outperformed their expected grosses, and set a combined box office record for their opening weekend. ^note For Latin American viewers, this is especially more funnier if you take into account Barbie and Ken's voice actors, Mireya Mendoza and José Antonio Macías, also worked on the dub of Oppenheimer as Katherine Oppenheimer and Leslie Groves respectively.
  • It also has one with fans of The Locked Tomb, as a Barbie doll plays an important role in a major character's backstory (no, seriously; It Makes Sense in Context), making a whole movie about a Barbie appealing for those who like the character, ie, basically everyone.
  • With The LEGO Movie, both being irreverent, self-aware comedies based on highly popular toys with surprisingly deep themes and including Will Ferrell as the CEO and Big Bad in a nice suit it even turns out to be more misguided than evil in both movies, though the reasons and circumstances are extremely different.
  • Viewers of Barbie have developed a friendly fandom with those of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, in regards to the two bombastic Signature Songs the movies have, with some hyping up a potential duet between Ryan Gosling and Jack Black. In a similar subject to Mario, it has even gotten a friendly fandom with Princess Peach: Showtime! due to both titles starring peppy pink-wearing Girly Girl blondes - and features Peach taking on different roles.
  • Barbie and Blade Runner 2049 fans get along nicely, thanks to both films starring one of the internet's favorite actors, Ryan Gosling. Mostly due to the massive contrast between Gosling's roles as Ken and Officer K, and how easy it is to meme off each other. Both movies being distributed by Warner Bros. ^note albeit the latter was coproduced by and distributed internationally by Columbia Pictures only adds to the friendliness.
  • The Babylon hive absolutely adores both Barbie and its fandom, largely due to the shared presence of Margot Robbie and there being a few similarities in both films despite their vastly different subject matter, most notably a highly stylized dance scene prominently featuring Robbie, memorable choreography, and a very catchy song, as well as a male character who is utterly infatuated with her character even though she doesn't love them back.
  • There's also fandom crossover with Neon Genesis Evangelion since both take an existential look at their narratives, Evangelion uses dolls as one of its central themes, and there's a trippy sequence Barbie has with her creator that's reminiscent of Shinji's dream sequence from The End of Evangelion. It also helps that "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" mixes well with Aqua's "Barbie Girl".
• Genius Bonus:
  • When Barbie is bemoaning being called a "fascist," she muses that's not true because she doesn't have control over railways. This is a reference to the misconception that fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini "made the trains run on time," a myth that was meant to lend legitimacy to the idea of fascism improving Italian society.
  • Ken's idea of masculinity being so associated with horses also holds some historical precedent. In many historic cultures, ownership of horses was what distinguished a nobleman from the common rabble (hence phrases like "Noble Steed.") In fact, in many languages, terms for a man of nobility comes from (or has the same root origin as) the word for horse, such as Spanish (caballo/horse... caballero/gentleman) or French (cheval/horse... chevalier/knight,) because having a horse is what distinguished them as one.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: This, of course, wouldn't be the last time that we would have "Spice Up Your Life" and Ncuti Gatwa crossing paths.
  • Barbie crying over being called a fascist whilst "not controlling the railways or the flow of commerce" became coincidental when it was announced that Margot Robbie will be producing a live-action Monopoly film.
• Hollywood Homely:
  • Barbie losing her idealized looks and makeup to look more human "ordinary" during her Heroic BSoD is slightly undermined by the fact she's still played by the Hollywood-gorgeous Margot Robbie. The narrator even lampshades this.
  • Underneath her unflattering outfit, bad haircut, and scribbled-on face (all of which she loses during the course of the movie), Weird Barbie is still an idealized blonde, blue-eyed, slender Barbie, and Kate McKinnon's baseline human attractiveness remains untouched.
• Ho Yay:
  • In an extended comedic bit, Beach Ken and Rival Ken threaten to "beach each other off". They also share a fairly homoerotic rivalry throughout a lot of the film, culminating in a dance-off. Beach Ken also seems pretty happy when he gets kissed on the cheek by two of the other Kens in said dance-off.
  • In addition to this, Basketball Ken is seen throughout the movie shyly looking at Beach Ken from a distance from the side, follows behind him in most scenes or is not far behind, is the first one to stand by his side during the "beach off" bit and even gets Beach Ken's fur coat at the end. It's not a stretch to read him as a closeted man desperately wanting the approval of his crush.
  • During the Ken War, a couple of Kens are seen in the background going from fighting to dancing with each other. Towards the end of the big song and dance number "I'm Just Ken", the Kens are passionately dancing together. There's also the delightfully campy line "put that manly hand in mine".
  • With Barbie paying more attention to Gloria than Ken, sharing a Held Gaze when they meet due to Gloria being the human playing with this Barbie and Gloria's husband barely being in the movie to the point of not even getting named, it is easy to ship them.
• Hype Backlash: Hugely. What with the hype surrounding the story and its fans treating it as a near Sacred Cow, many came away from the film finding it underwhelming, poorly paced and merely Anvilicious as opposed to revolutionary in its storytelling.
• Iron Woobie: "Weird Barbie" is the personification of Barbies who have been "played too hard" like their owners cutting or burning their hair and drawing on them. She is ostracized by the other Barbies who call her "Weird Barbie" behind her back (and also to her face). Despite this, Weird Barbie takes this all well and owns the name. Meeting Gloria, who'd had a Weird Barbie and immediately says that's what happens to a Barbie played with too hard, Weird Barbie gives her a thumbs up.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people just wanted to see Margot Robbie as Barbie instead of the movie.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Stereotypical Barbie has been shipped with almost every other character in the film, including Beach Ken, Gloria, all of the other Barbies, and the rest of the Kens. She has even been Crossover Shipped with J. Robert Oppenheimer from Oppenheimer.
  • Beach Ken is shipped with a lot of other characters. He has been shipped with Stereotypical Barbie (despite them not being a couple in the film), Allen, and Gloria, as well as every other Barbie and Ken.
• LGBT Fanbase: The film has attracted a large LGBT audience, owing to:
  • Its unapologetically over-the-top camp and kitsch aesthetics and its criticism of heteronormative gender roles.
  • Its casting of queer actors such as Kate McKinnon, Ncuti Gatwa, Scott Evans and Hari Nef.
  • Even Stereotypical Barbie's storyline can be read through a Rainbow Lens to interpret her coming out as asexual or lesbian when she discovers that she isn't interested in Ken.
  • Many gay men have flocked to the movie and specifically to Allan, citing their own lived experiences of being bullied and excluded by the men in their lives and only feeling accepted by women. This also made his beatdown of the construction Kens extremely cathartic.
  • An appearance by Magic Earring Ken, who was the best-selling Ken of all time because of all the gay men who were pulling him off the shelves.
• Memetic Mutation: See here.
• Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Despite theorically casting them as villains, the movie, Beach Ken, and his intentionally ridiculous song gained praise from heterosexual men who identify with the character's plight and agree with the message of accepting oneself as valuable, regardless of your relationships, career, and other society-imposed standards. The fact that Testosterone Poisoning in the film is portrayed as cheesy and hilarious much rather than offensive also makes the film acceptable and relatable for them as well.
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • Despite the movie establishing that Barbie doesn't reciprocate Ken's romantic feelings, many fans still ship them, due to the chemistry between the actors and their complicated relationship.
  • A very persistent group of (predominantly male) viewers insist on interpreting the Aesop of the movie as the Barbies having been happier under the Kendom patriarchy and the movie in general being an anti-Feminist allegory that supports Ken and says that men are the real victims in modern society. This interpretation almost entirely ignores the third act of the film, as well as the fact that even the Kens' understanding of what Patriarchy is is shallow and ignorant, and they (Beach Ken especially) later reaffirm themselves by coming to terms with their own individuality and the fact that they don't need to either submit to the Barbies or dominate them in order to be happy.
  • On the flipside, other men (and some women) accused the movie of being "man-hating", conveniently ignoring the fact that it explores how the patriarchy affects both genders, and it also does not hold any punches about how woman running everything like in Barbieland would also not be very positive.
  • Some transphobes, especially TERFs^Explanation"Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist," a sliver of self-identifying feminists who don't include trans women in their activism or consider them "real women" take the film's final punchline of the newly-human Barbie going to see a gynecologist for the first time as the film saying that getting a vagina made her a "real" woman. Likewise, some trans-inclusive feminists condemn this ending as transphobic. Given that one of the Barbies is played by trans actress Hari Nef, and some trans women do see a gynecologist if they're post-op, it seems highly unlikely that a transphobic reading is what was intended.
• Narm Charm: This movie is a seriously in-depth examination of patriarchy and feminism, and manages to hit very hard despite featuring extremely dramatic, emotional keynote scenes punctuated with gigantic tightly-choreographed dance numbers and fourth-wall-breaking jokes, as well as the predominant color being pastel pink. In short, you may very well cry or clap watching the Barbie movie, which sounds ridiculous on paper but works amazingly in practice.
• Older Than They Think:
  • Barbie previously spoofed 2001: A Space Odyssey in Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, where the titular Dreamhouse has a HAL-9000-inspired Master Computer. The computer's introductory episode, "Closet Princess 2.0," also begins with a topiary re-enactment of the 2001 opening.
  • After the trailers dropped, there were protests from conservatives who took issue with Ken being depicted as a useless trophy boyfriend. Ken being a trophy boyfriend has been a running joke in the Barbie fandom since long before the movie was even announced; this isn't even the first time the franchise has acknowledged it, as an episode of Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse has him outright decide that "being Barbie's boyfriend" is his main calling. The film also deconstructs his lack of purpose, which leads him to pull a Face–Heel Turn and take over Barbieland.
• One-Scene Wonder: The novelty of seeing John Cena as a merman in Barbieland after Ken takes over it, complete with flowing golden tresses, means he's going to stick in memory.
• Padding: Most people seem to agree that the Mattel HQ scene is this, as it doesn't really add anything to the film except for a cheap way to have Will Ferrell's character and Ruth become involved, and even then, it goes on for too long and seems to exist just to fill out the movie's runtime.
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Those who ship Barbie and Gloria tend to call them "Glorbie" or "Glarbie".
  • In the Friendly Fandoms between this and Oppenheimer, on top of being a portmanteau title for the film, many fans also use "Barbenheimer" for the Crossover Ship between Barbie and Oppenheimer.
• Preemptive Shipping:
  • Before the film released, a lot of fans shipped Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken together because they dated each other in most versions of the franchise. In the actual movie, they aren't dating because Barbie is not interested in Ken, but that hasn't stopped people from shipping them due to the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie.
  • A lot of fans started to ship Barbie and Gloria together pre-release due to Margot Robbie and America Ferrera's chemistry while promoting the film, which continued even post-release.
• Rainbow Lens: Some fans interpret the dolls' main story arcs as queer.
  • The most common one is interpreting Stereotypical Barbie's arc as an asexual/lesbian (or both) arc. She is meant to be a package deal/girlfriend to Beach Ken, but she has zero romantic interest in him.
  • Stereotypical Barbie, like all the other dolls, also has no genitals (which is noted within the film), meaning she is not technically biologically female. She's not biologically any sex at all. But in the ending, she finally becomes a "real woman," and it could be taken as a parallel to transitioning.
  • Alan is widely interpreted as gay and/or trans, because he doesn't fit in with the Kens and he only really hangs out with the Barbies. Plus there's the fact that the real doll was historically Ken's best friend who could fit into all of Ken's clothes, which can be interpreted in a Ho Yay sort of way (even though he was intended to be Midge’s boyfriend). However, in the film, Midge is still pregnant, but isn't shown to be in any relationship. Others also interpret him as non-binary or genderfluid for not fitting in with either the Barbies or the Kens.
• Shipping: There are a couple of ships that have risen in popularity within the fandom. There's Stereotypical Barbie/Ken (even though they don't get together), Barbie/Gloria, Barbie/Oppenheimer, Ken/Allan and Beach Ken/Rival Ken.
• Signature Scene: Gloria's monologue about what it means to be a woman.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To The LEGO Movie. Both are light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek, exceedingly meta features based on famous toys that don't hesitate to make fun of the sillier aspects of their source material whilst highlighting why they're so popular and beloved. As a bonus, both films feature Will Ferrell!
  • The entire plot is about a Barbie doll being placed in the real world with a fish out of water theme that is very similar to the movie Life-Size. They even both poke fun at the hollowness of glamorized doll stereotypes.
  • The movie is as much a live-action spin-off of Toy Story 3, starring a Barbie that has Hidden Depths rather than being a vapid airhead and a Ken with an inferiority complex born of being perceived as just another of Barbie's accessories to the point that he turns into a reluctant villain because of it. All Played for Laughs, and they both remain sentient dolls with a childlike innocence.
  • Referenced Mattel products aside, the movie is essentially a Lighter and Softer Sequel Escalation to I Am Not an Easy Man, being a satirical comedy about a man and woman from a fantasy matriarchy that travel to, and discover, patriarchy in our world, although I Am Not an Easy Man is about a man from our world who goes to a matriarchy (and at the end, a woman from that world coming to ours). Barbie's end even notes that the Kens eventually were granted as much rights in Barbieland as women have in the real world, which was the starting point of I Am Not an Easy Man.
• Testosterone Brigade: The film has a wide range of fans due its fun, campy nature, despite being based off a toy franchise marketed at young girls. Men are no exception as they can truly relate to the struggles of the characters, particularly Ken, but it's not uncommon to hear them say Gloria's wholehearted speech about how she's living in a world with contradictory standards resonates with them as well. The fact that Barbie herself is played by Margot Robbie is the icing on the cake.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • The majority of Barbie's supporting cast from the toyline have been ignored, in favour of naming almost all the characters in Barbieland Barbie or Ken regardless of appearance or personality. One of the few exceptions is Midge, but despite this distinction, as well as being the only pregnant Barbie, she is not given any role in the movie beyond a cameo whose purpose is to poke fun at the weirdness of a pregnant doll. It is implied that she's an outsider like Weird Barbie alongside other discontinued Barbie and Ken dolls but she's not given any interaction with her nor does she have any interaction with the rest of Barbieland. Her status after the Ken patriarchy takeover is also very unclear. Was she also brainwashed like the other Barbies? If so, she is never shown to be rescued and deprogrammed. If not, why didn't Allan try to bring her with him during the escape to the real world?.
  • Skipper also stands out, as despite two of her appearing in Barbieland and the Noodle Incident of one previously visiting Earth, she's never shown to be closer to her sister than any of the other Barbies are, and it feels like a wasted opportunity when the film ends with Barbie choosing to leave Barbieland for good and possibly never see Skipper again.
  • Sasha starts out as a Barbie-hating judgmental Alpha Bitch who ludicrously blames Barbie for setting back women's rights 50 years, and calling Barbie a fascist. She eventually comes to support Stereotypical Barbie, she does it rather quickly changing her mind just mere minutes after abandoning her. She does not have much of an arc and her anti-Barbie views were not reflected on or challenged.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Barbie and Ken exploring Real Life and getting into hijinks over how normal people react to them which the trailers show extensively, is actually only a relatively small portion of the film, despite being a major element for the movie throughout the marketing. Furthermore, Barbie meeting and understanding multiple girls and women who have grown out of dolls or become jaded to stereotypically girly things like her is not greatly explored, as the plot goes back to Barbieland to deal with Barbie's issues.
  • The entire subplot involving the Mattel CEO and his executives trying to track down Barbie and Ken which eventually leads them into Barbieland/Kendom ultimately doesn't amount to much in the large scheme of things, especially when the Mattel CEO is eventually shown to be a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who, despite still being a capitalistic businessman in a male-dominated world, wants to use the Barbie brand as a symbol of inspiration to girls all over the world and could've become a good contrast of the Kens who took over Barbieland and mind-washed the Barbies into their servants with their toxic masculinity. By the time the CEO and the execs finally got to Barbieland, the Barbies have already resolved their conflict with the Kens.
  • The implication that the things that happened in Barbieland/Kendom would affect the real world as well isn't explored much outside of a few scenes.
  • Ken brings several books about the Patriarchy into Barbieland and manages to turn it into a fratbro paradise, where all the Kens act like douchebags and all the Barbies have been brainwashed into brainless Stepford Wives. It's not shown how he did this in such a short period of time, nor is it shown how all the Barbies were Brainwashed and Crazy. Did Ken convince them that Patriarchy would be good for them, which caused them to snap into becoming stepfords? Or did just bringing the books about Patriarchy to the Imagination Realm of the Barbie world change it? It's just not shown.
  • The Mattel portions of the film could have had some females on the board to examine how some companies will promote female employees for the sake of looking progressive but still not doing anything to change workplace sexism or harassment, which could have tied into the movie's central theme and given the subplot some relation to the main story, which many felt was sorely missing.
• Watched It for the Representation: Many people of varying races, sexualities, disabilities and gender identities got interested in the movie thanks to the very diverse cast behind the supporting Barbies and Kens, who aren't singled out for their underrepresented identities and are treated like any other Barbie or Ken within the movie. Dr. Barbie (Hari Nef) in particular attracted a lot of transgender viewers due to the rarity of meaningful trans representation in Hollywood media. Judge Barbie (Ana Cruz Kayne) also gained praise from Filipino audiences especially with her Filipiniana gown worn towards the ending minutes of the film, which also served as a Genius Bonus considering Mattel's past history in the Philippines.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: The film features the bright, colorful imagery, energetic musical numbers, and overall outlandish and toyetic vibe of the Barbie dolls and their usual multimedia, and based on those traits, it's very easy to assume that this is just a straightforward Hollywood adaptation made to appeal to the franchise's usual demographic, primarily young girls. However, the film (and much of the marketing) instead leans in with a rather mature and postmodern bend, featuring surprisingly heavy and complex themes around existentialism, culture wars, and gender divides, along with some raunchy gags regarding Barbie Doll Anatomy. Part of this is based around the idea of the movie actually being more of a Deconstructive Parody whose target audiences are much broader, that being anyone who's simply aware of Barbie as a concept and a brand (as the trailer itself posits: "If you love Barbie, this movie is for you. If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you."), which in turn largely covers adults with much more sophisticated perceptions and opinions about the doll than what kids are likely thinking about. Judging by the film's critical and financial success, it appears to have worked gangbusters, but this has also raised many an eyebrow due to being somewhat inappropriate for the original demographic the toy itself is made for — not necessarily that it's too obscene for kids, but rather too complicated for them to understand without further elaboration by their parents (in other words, it's a movie that really earns its PG-13 rating).
• The Woobie:
  • Barbie herself. After coming to the real world, her expectations are shattered as she realizes how different it is from her idyllic homeland. She is immediately catcalled and sexually harassed when she arrives. She meets the girl who played with her, Sasha, who cruelly insults Barbie, telling her she set women's rights back 50 years and then tops it all off by calling her a fascist, which drives Barbie into tears. When she goes back to Barbieland and finds out that her boyfriend has turned it into a fratbro's idea of a patriarchal society, she completely loses hope; becoming an empty shell who sees herself as unworthy of being anything.
  • Poor Beach Ken. Behind his cheery, ditzy personality lies someone struggling with an identity crisis, his unrequited crush on Barbie and feelings of inadequacy. While in the real world with Barbie, he finally finds something that makes him feel important; that something turns out to be patriarchy, which he brings back to Barbieland, resulting in the Kens flipping the script on the Barbies and making them the subservient ones, filling Barbieland with stereotypically masculine things. As it turns out, none of these things actually make Ken feel better; and it's only with Barbie's encouragement once he's hit his own personal rock bottom that Ken can finally start to live for himself and carve out an identity of his own.
  • Allan, who always seems to exist on the fringes of Barbieland society, never included with the Kens and largely ignored by the Barbies. For a while, it seems he has even less of an identity than the Kens, but he proves to have Hidden Depths and deep feelings about his status in Barbie society, at one point begging to be taken the Real World because no one in Barbieland will even notice he's gone. Eventually he makes some inroads with the Barbies, but the end of the film seems to indicate that he'll always be an awkward outsider.
• Woolseyism:
  • The European Spanish dub translates the Kens threatening to "beach" each other off to threatening to give each other a beating... but the wording sounds like they are threatening to "put it inside" one another. This got unusual praise in Latin America (where European dubs are usually detested), as in their version the Kens threaten to "wallow" with each other instead (also used as an euphemism for sex, but much less crude).
  • The European Spanish version also changes Weird Barbie's home's name from her "weird house" to La Casa de Enredo ("The House of Mess"), making it a pun on Barbie's Dreamhouse (La Casa de Ensueño).

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